1926:SAINTS
RUN LAST IN SEASON OF WOEAnother
dark year for St George who finished as wooden spooners
for the second time. Even a rejuvenated University finally managed
to defeat Saints, something they were unable to do in 10 prior
meetings. The highlight of the year was the Final between Souths
and University at the Agricultural Showground. The match drew
20,000 people. Souths won 11-5.
1926 was also the final year for Ernie Lapham [pic left]
rated as the fastest forward in the game, 'Curly' Lapham came
to Saints in 1921. He later joined Souths and was a NSW rep in
1926-28. In all, he scored 11 tries for Saints in 53 games.Despite
the disastrous year, St George provided three players for the
NSW side in Arthur 'Snowy' Justice, Bill Hardman
and Aubrey 'Jockey' Kelly.
Fielding a reasonable team and captained by Arnold Traynor
[pic right], Saints were accused of showing a 'lack of enthusiasm
in training, discipline and cooperation' by The Rugby League
News.Sydney Cricket Ground, 24 April 1926: In contrast to Saints'
team performances were the brilliant individual efforts from hooker
'Snowy' Justice and five eighth and captain Arnold Traynor. In
particular, during a round one match against eventual premiers
South Sydney, Traynor played the game of his life setting up a
number of plays and adding further points with the boot.
The Saints skipper comprehensively out-played his opposite, 'Smacker'
Blair but it wasn't enough with St George eventually going down
16-12 in front of approximately 15,000 people.
South Sydney 16 (4 tries, 2 goals) defeated St George 12 (2 tries,
3 goals). Ref: W Neill.

SAINTS APPROACH FRANK BURGE
In an attempt to avoid a repeat of the 1926 season, St George
have approached retiring Glebe and international forward, Frank
Burge. Hooker Snowy Justice urged club secretary Reg Fusedale
to meet with Burge and to sign up the veteran as player-coach
for the 1927 season.

1926NSWRL
First Grade
Ladder(top 4 in semis)

Souths p

32

Glebe

23

Easts

23

University

22

Wests

20

Newtown

18

Norths

18

Balmain

16

St George

8

p = Season Premiers

Saints 1926

AFTER 18 ROUNDS
Minor PremiershipWon-Lost-Draw-Bye

W

L

D

B

2

14

0

2

Points For 169
(9th best attack)
Points Against 307
(9th best defence)

ST
GEORGE MAKE FINAL FOR FIRST TIME
THE MIGHTY FRANK BURGEThe
appointment of international and Glebe forwardFrank 'Chunky' Burge [pic right]as
St George captain-coach was greeted with controversy
with critics noting Burge's already lengthy career and that he
had just announced his retirement. Following several meetings,
Saints agreed to pay Burge the exorbitant amount of £200;
Arthur 'Snowy' Justice, who first suggested Burge's appointment
remarked that, "everyone thought we'd gone mad."

1927 team:
Click pic for larger image and player names

The
critics however were proven wrong when under the guidance of Burge,
St George made a remarkable turnaround. Coming from last in '26
to runners up in '27. In 18 rounds, Saints lost just three matches,
one to Wests and two to the minor premiers and '27 champions,
South Sydney. At the age of 33, Frank 'Chunky' Burge played
only the one season with Saints as player-coach but he still scored
nine tries in 16 games. Frank Burge will go down in history as
one of the greatest try scoring forwards the game has ever produced.
In a first grade career which began in 1911, Frank Burge scored
146 tries (154 games) before retiring in 1927.
It was to become one of Rugby League's most enduring records.
No other forward has been able to manage this achievement.Frank
continued as St George's coach until 1930 before going on to coaching
other teams. He returned again in 1937 to once again lift Saints'
fortunes.
With the competition's best defensive record, Saints finished
2nd in the season proper on 29 points going into the 1927 semi-finals.
These were uncharted waters for the club which joined the competition
just six years earlier.

They
must have been pleased to learn that their minor semi final against
Easts was scheduled
to be played at Earl Park where Saints were enjoying a great deal
of success. The minor semi-final was played on 27th September,
1927 in front of 5,040 people. Despite being a man down (fullback
Frank Meighan was sent off allegedly for kicking), Saints won
the match 26-11 scoring six tries to one. Winger Frank 'Fatty'
Saunders was the star of the match bagging a hat trick of tries.Royal Agricultural Showground,
17 September 1927: The
victory in the minor semi-final meant that St George had qualified
for their first ever final in their first ever semis.
Saints eventually went down 20-11 to minor premiers, South Sydney
but it was a tremendous turnaround for the red and whites who
had gone from wooden spooners to runners up in one season.Playing
on a quagmire, Saints confronted the might of Souths in the final
at the RAS in front of 12,124 people. The two teams had already
met earlier in the season at the Sydney Cricket Ground when Souths
defeated Saints 17-14 in front of a massive crowd of 31,500
With heavy rain falling throughout the match, Souths won the decider
scoring four tries to three.
Souths 20 (4 tries, 4 goals) defeated St George 11 (3 tries, 1
goal). Ref: W Neill.SAINTS
SIGN STAN BRAINAnother big signing for St George in 1927 was NSW rep player,
Stan Brain. A country winger, Brain played in the 1927
Final.CLARRIE TYE
RETIRESIn other news, 1927 was the final year for forward, Clarrie
F Tye [pic right] who announced his retirement from premiership
football. Clarrie came to Saints from Wests in 1921 and played
in Saints inaugural first grade match.
A NSW rep in 1919 and 1921, Clarrie Tye captained Saints in 1923.
In all, Clarrie played 78 games for St George scoring 11 tries.

The
Red V1928:Police
intervene as Earl Park erupts!Earl
Park, 11 August 1928: Following
a fiery on-field encounter between St George and Balmain, Earl
Park has erupted into crowd violence. The match was won 21-3 by
St George in front of 6000 people, but not before fighting between
players spilled across the ground. An all in brawl followed and
spectators got involved. Police intervened using hand cuffs, batons
and fists in an effort to quell what the press have dubbed, 'the
Earl Park riot'.
According to reports, St George players retaliated when team mate
George Carstairs was kicked about the head by a Balmain
player.
It appears the source of the crowd's aggravation was referee Brannaghan
who lost control of the match when he sent off St George forward
Harry Flower early in the second half but allowed Balmain
players to stay on the field.
The incident with Carstairs occurred five minutes from fulltime.
Earlier, Carstairs had been kicked in the face while playing the
ball but on this occasion he was knocked unconscious when kicked
in the head by Balmain forward, Tony Russell. Brannaghan's
decision to only cautioned Russell brought a strong reaction from
players, officials, and the crowd.
St George coach, Frank Burgh and secretary, Reg Fusedale
approached Brannaghan for an explanation following an on field
brawl amongst the players.
The game continued but another incident at fulltime escalated
the already volatile situation. With the match over, Balmain's
George Bishop began chasing St George five eighth, Arnold
Traynor.
This infuriated sections of the crowd as hundreds invaded the
pitch with the intention of seeking revenge on the Balmain players.
St George supporters ripped off fence palings to be used as weapons
and one witness reported seeing a man running around behind the
grandstand with an axe!
Police arrived but not before Russell was badly beaten by the
crowd. He suffered leg and head injuries and was put into the
same ambulance as George Carstairs where it was reported that
Russell attempted to assault Carstairs and ambulance officers
had to intervene to restrain him.
Meanwhile police were making numerous arrests and order was eventually
restored. A week later, a NSWRL investigation blamed crowd violence
and not the players or officials for the disturbance.

St George
minor premiers for first time!Sydney Cricket Ground, 1 September 1928:
The St George 'Dragon Slayers' have have secured top position
on the ladder after defeating Norths 23-13 in the final round
of the minor premiership. Saints were equal with Easts on 28 points
but attain top spot by virtue of a better for-and-against. Additionally,
Easts had two byes to St George's one bye. Saints had a tremendous
season in 1928, losing just one match and posting 12 wins, including
a 24-0 drubbing of Glebe.
St George went into the semis with the knowledge that throughout
1928, they had the better of the other three semi-finalists, Easts,
Souths and Norths. So far, Saints have played Easts once and Souths
twice without loss and have played Norths twice, narrowly losing
early in the season but winning comfortably in today's match at
the SCG.

SAINTS
BOW OUT OF SEMIS RACE

Earl Park,
8 September 1928: Despite finishing on top of the premiership
ladder with 28 points, St George were defeated by Souths 13-5
at Earl Park in front of a crowd of 14,758 in the sudden death
major semi final.It was a disappointing end to the season for Saints
who were well clear of Souths in the premiership standings who
only came into the semis with just 18 points.To their credit, Souths go on to the Final and win
the competition by defeating Easts 26-5.

1929:'DRAGON
SLAYERS' HAVE NEW JERSEYThe 1929 season saw Saints run on for the first
time with a distinctive 'red vee' on a white background. Now
commonly referred to as the 'Dragon Slayers', St George have
done away with the previous jersey with it's broad horizontal
red bars.

V
PROMISING START IN BIG LEAGUEV

Sydney,
31 August 1929: After 18 rounds of football, Saints finished
the season in 2nd position on 27 points and qualified for
the semi-finals. On September 7th, Saints lined up against
Newtown for the minor semi final at Earl Park. 7000 people were
in attendance to see Saints go down by the narrowest of margins,
8-7. Despite missing out on a premiership, Saints can be proud
about their early years in 1st grade and are one of the teams
to watch in the season to come. Also, 1929 was the final year for George 'Bluey'
Carstairs who decided to retire from first grade football.
A Marist Brothers junior, George played all his 1st grade football
with Saints with 79 games including Saints first ever game in
1921 when he scored Saints first ever try.Playing
at centre or winger, the big three quarter scored 11 tries &
79 goals (191pts). He was also a 1921 Kangaroo, playing for Australia
17 times including two test matches. Frank Gray, another
1921 founding player also retired after 33 games for the red and
whites.
In other news, '29 saw the end of Rugby League's first club, Glebe. In the club's 22 season history, they scored more
points than they conceded and were runners up four times. One
reason for the demise of the inner city club appears to be geographical
while the club's fruitless search for an adequate home ground
seemed to be the final straw.